NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams defiantly announced he’s staying in the mayoral race Friday afternoon, despite intense pressure by President Donald Trump and others to consolidate opposition to Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.
“I want to be clear: Andrew Cuomo is a snake and a liar. I am in this race. And I’m the only one who can beat Mamdani,” Adams said, blaming the former governor and mayoral race opponent for trying to get him out of the contest.
His announcement is the latest development in a rapidly evolving melodrama surrounding his political future. That intensified this week as POLITICO and other news outlets reported that Trump advisers are floating administration positions, including a Housing and Urban Development post and an ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia, as incentives for Adams to leave the race and clear the path for Cuomo to face Mamdani.
Adams met with Trump advisers, including Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, during an impromptu Florida trip this week.
The mayor’s campaign spokesperson, Todd Shapiro, insisted to reporters earlier in the day that Adams would remain in office for the rest of his term — a potential signal to the White House amid the private discussions and public speculation.
As the closed-door conversations continued, Trump told reporters Thursday he does not want “a communist” to lead the city — referring to Mamdani, a democratic socialist — and prefers a mayoral field that has been narrowed to two candidates.
Following Adams’ announcement, Trump denied offering the mayor an ambassadorship but reiterated his preference for a two-person contest.
“Cuomo might have a chance of winning if it’s one-on-one,” Trump said. “If it’s not one-on-one, it’s gonna be a hard race. We’ll get used to a Communist, and he’s gonna have to go through the White House and get approvals for everything. And we’re gonna make sure that the New York is not hurt. We want to make sure that New York is cherished and taken care of.”
Adams’ insistence he would remain in the race was packaged with an aggressive, class-based argument against Mamdani and Cuomo as “two brats” who were “born with silver spoons in their mouths.”
The mayor cast himself as a champion of “working class New Yorkers,” adding that reports he would travel to Washington on Monday were wrong.
He did not take questions from reporters.
Remaining in the race comes with significant risks for the mayor, first elected as a moderate Democrat on a public safety platform. Adams is polling in the single digits and winning a second term appears to be a steep hill for the incumbent, the city’s second Black mayor.
The press conference came after days of fervent speculation in the heated mayoral campaign. “Heard any good rumors lately?” New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams posted on X. A loud critic of Adams, Williams would serve as acting mayor if Adams were to resign or leave office.
Adams, a retired NYPD captain and former state senator, once described himself as the Biden of Brooklyn and was regarded as the next blue-collar star of the Democratic Party. Then federal investigations and charges of corruption swept over the mayor and his inner circle. Adams was indicted one year ago in an alleged bribery scheme, but Trump’s Department of Justice pushed for his case to be dropped, and a federal judge dismissed it in April with prejudice.
The mayor has since wrestled with the perception that he is beholden to Trump and his administration, especially as the president carries out his deportation plans in the country’s biggest sanctuary city. Adams and his allies have insisted there is no quid pro quo, but the mayor has nurtured a working relationship with the president that is highly unusual for a Democratic official.
The mayor skipped the primary after he cozied up to Trump, who is deeply unpopular in the Democratic city.
Mamdani was catapulted to front-runner status after his upset June Democratic primary win. The rise of the 33-year-old democratic socialist has alarmed wealthy donors, business leaders and moderate Democrats who are concerned that his hard-left platform will damage the city.
But Mamdani’s opponents have struggled to establish a plan to blunt his rise, grumbling that the state assemblymember and political novice doesn’t have the chops to run a city so massive and complex. Mainstream Democrats have also worried Mamdani’s socialist policies could crimp their chances at winning back the House majority next year.
The Democratic nominee, who won in June by turning out a diverse coalition of voters, has sought in recent weeks to paint Cuomo as Trump’s choice for mayor — a political kiss of death in heavily Democratic New York City. Mamdani has called the former governor, who seeks a return to office after resigning four years ago amid sexual harassment allegations, “Donald Trump’s puppet.”
“Through the collusion and corruption of the past few months, our relentless focus on the affordability crisis — created by Andrew Cuomo and inflamed by Eric Adams — has not wavered,” Mamdani said in a statement following the announcement.
Cuomo, polling far behind Mamdani in a multi-candidate field, has in turn tried to argue that he is best equipped to stand up to Trump as someone who faced off with him during the Covid pandemic. The former governor said this week that Trump would prefer Mamdani “because he would go through that kid like a Mack truck.”
The former governor would receive a significant boost if Adams leaves the race. Both men share a base of older blue collar voters and people of color. But the perception that Cuomo is benefiting from the president’s unusual intervention in the city’s political affairs also stands to boomerang on the former governor.
Trump’s meddling in the race has infuriated top New York Democrats, including those who are yet to endorse Mamdani’s upstart bid.
Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday morning blasted the president’s effort to upend the campaign.
“Contrary to what the president thinks, he’s not a king,” she said. “He’s not a kingmaker. He should not be anointing the next mayor of New York City… no one should be accepting that assistance.”
Asked about the situation by a reporter on the street later that morning, Hochul responded: “We’re not fucking selling our city.”
